Italian rising star Lorenzo Musetti battled past US rising star Frances Tiafoe 2-6 6-3 7-6 (7-1) with five breaks of serve after 2 hours and 44 minutes to reach the quarter final in an ATP 500 tournament for the first time in his career.
Musetti followed up his win of Diego Schwartzman with another hard-fought victory over Frances Tiafoe. His 6-3 2-6 6-4 win over Schwartzman on Tuesday was his first victory over a top 10 player.
Tiafoe got an early break to take a 3-1 lead in the third set. Musetti broke back before serving to stay in the match at 4-5. He held serve with a love hold before breaking serve for 6-5. Tiafoe broke back to force the match to the tie-break, when Musetti was serving out for the match in the 12th game. Musetti raced out to a 6-0 before sealing the win on his second match point.
“I have no words. Today I think it was even tougher than yesterday. Tiafoe played the first set incredible. I was still in the bed. He started so well. After that I played with heart, with everything that I could. I am really proud of myself, with what I did. It was really tough. He is unbelievable. We are close friends, as you could see at the handshake, big hug with him. It was an incredible night, an incredible match. I have a lot of adrenaline. I am not going to sleep”.
Musetti laid on the court for 15 seconds in disbelief to celebrate the win. He jogged to hug Frances Tiafoe and his coach Simone Tartarini.
“It was a really tough match. At the end, every point was a fight and I had some tears when I finished the match. Obviously I wanted to share the win and all the amazing that I have right now and that I had in that moment with my coach. I consider him like a second father, so it’s really important for me and he was really proud of me and it’s really incredible tonight”, said Musetti.
Tartarini said on the ATP Tour website: “Mamma mia. My heart is dead. Today it was not easy to play, because Tiafoe is very strong and very quick. Lorenzo brought the best mentality. He went down 3-0 in the third set. I am very happy”.
Musetti made a major breakthrough last September when he reached the third round of the Rome Masters 1000 tournament after beating Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori. He also reached the semifinals at the Sardinia Open and won his first ATP Challenger in Forlì after beating Frances Tiafoe in the Round of 16, Andreas Seppi in the quarter final, Lloyd Harris in the semifinal and Thiago Monteiro in the final.
The 19-year-old Italian Next Gen player started the 2020 season ranked world number 360. He is now ranked world number 120 and is expected to climb to world number 108 next week. He could break inside the top 100 if he beats Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter finals.
Jannik Sinner believes that Italian tennis is enjoying a great period and praised Musetti.
“Everyone is different, has different styles, so I think that’s very exciting. Musetti is a big talent. He can do everything with the ball already, so he is physically strong. I think he is a great player like Lorenzo Sonego as well. He is serving big and going for shots”, said Sinner.
